Adjustable screen-door



(No Model.)

Y W. HUGHES.

ADJUSTABLE SGREENVDOOR.

Patented Deo. 6, 1887.

0 e o o a m t, .1

gnou/WQ@ #www UNITED STATES P.LrrnnrY OFFICE.

WILLIAM HUGHES, OF MINERVA, OHIO.

-ADJUSTABLE SCREEN-DOOR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 374,187, dated December6, 1887.

Application tiled September 9, i887. Serial No. 249,234. (No model.)

To aZZ whom, it may concern:

Be itknown that I, WILLIAM HUGHES, a citizen of the United States or"America, residing at Minerva, in the county of Stark and State of Ohio,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in AdjustableScreen-Doors, of which the following is aspecication, reference beinghad therein to the accompanying drawings.

My invent-ion relates to screen-doors; and it has for its object toproduce doors of this class which will be capable of adj ustrnentto titopenings of various sizes.

The invention will first be described in connection with theaccompanying drawings, and then pointed out in the claims.

Figure 1 of the drawings is afi-ont elevation, partly in section, of adoor provided with the auxiliary screen and expanded to full width. Fig.2 is a front elevation of a door without the auxiliary screen andadjusted to its narrowest limit. Fig. 3 is a vertical section of thedoor taken on the line a." fr, Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a plan Viewoftheanxiliary screen.

Referring to the drawings, A A are the side rails of the door,which aremade the length of doors of the largest size common in dwellings. Theserails are about four and one-half inches in width and are grooved ontheir inner edges, as at a, to the depth of about three and one-halfinches, and in these grooves are placed springs B, which press againstthe screen-frame, hereinafter described, and adjust it in accordancewith the width of the door.

O C represent the cross-rails'of the door, each of which :is constructedin two pieces, c c,one of said pieces, c', being tongued on its innerside, as at 1, and the other, c, correspondingly grooved, as-at 2. Bothpieces are reduced in -thickness for the greater portion oftheir length,leaving a shoulder, 3, (seen in full and dotted lines,) where thereduction commences, so that when they are put together the cross-railwill be of one thickness throughoutits length. VBoth pieces are alsorabbeted, as at 4, so that when they are together these rabbets willform a groove for the reception of the screenname, as clearly shown inFig. 3. One end of each piece c and c is tenoned to fit in groove a inside rails, A, as seen in dotted lines, and is rigidly secured thereinby screws, glue, or other suitable means. The pieces are held togetheradjustably by headed bolts 5 and screwthreaded nuts 6, the said boltspassing through a hole, 7, and a slot, 8, in each piece, the hole in onepiece registering with the slot in the other piece, as seen in full anddotted lines.

D represents the screen-frame, and E the wire-cloth screen. This frameis of just suiicient thickness to work freely in the grooves a and 4 inthe side rails and crossuails, respectively, and it is of a width andlength suitable for the smallestsize door in common` use, as seen inFig. 2, wherein the door is illustrated as adjusted to its narrowestlimit and the side rails cut off on a line with the top ofthe uppercross-rail.

As before stated, in the manufacture of these screen-doors I make theside rails of a length suitable for the largest doors in common use.Now, when a doorlarger than the smallest size is required, I provide anauxiliary crossrail, F, constructed precisely like the rails C, to eachpiece of which I attach a strip of wirecloth, f, long enough to extendslightly beyond the middle of said piece, so that when rail F isextended to its full width the meeting ends of these strips willslightly overlap, as seen in Fig. 1, and thus freely slide oneupon theother while the rail is being adjusted to a less width, as seenin Fig.4. I secure this auxiliary rail in the grooves of the side rails at theproper height for a door of the desired length, trim oi" the wire-clothat the bottom, so that its lower edge will just rest on top of the uppercross rail O, and then, if the door is not to' be of the full lheight ofthe side rails, cut the latter off on aline with the top of theauxiliary rail. The door can then be adjusted as to width in an obviousmanner.

Having thus described my invention,what I claim, and desire to secure byLetters Patent,

1. The combination, with the side rails grooved on their inner edges,springs located in said grooves, the twopart adjustable crossrailsrabbeted to form grooves, as specified, and bolts and nuts foradjustably securing the parts of the cross-rails together, of thescreenframe and screen, the former adapted to t inthe grooves in theside rails and cross-rails and l the meeting` ends of which overlap eachother, bear against the springs in the side rails, for the wholeconstructed, arranged, and operatthe purpose set forth. ing in themanner above set forth.

2. The combination, with the grooved side In testimony whereof I affixmy signature in 5 rails, the springs therein, the two-part adjustapresence of two Witnesses.

ble Urooved erossrai1s bolts and nuts for seeuriig the parts of theCross-rails' together, WILLIAM HUGHES and the screen-frame provided witha screen, V'Vitnesses: ofthe auxiliary adjustable two-part cross-rail,JOHN F. JEROME, Io eaeh part of which is provided with a screen P. C.RAMSEY.

